Welcome
Welcome to your 1st Grade STEAM Pack for Teachers! STEAM stands for (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Humanities, and Math)! Since field trips were still limited this year, we are excited to be able to deliver this “traveling” field trip to your school. Please feel free to share this page with families who may be looking for resources and things to do with their children!
Your STEAM Pack is full of the types of hands-on activities that we would do in person. If you have any questions or issues, please reach out to us at director@ovmod.org. We would also appreciate any photos of the students and/or their interactions with the materials here as well as any feedback you have for us about the STEAM Pack program.
About Us
The Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery (OVMoD) was founded with a mission to inspire confidence in people of all ages to discover the world. The museum provides STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) – based interactive, interdisciplinary exhibits, programming, and educational events throughout our community. OVMoD seeks to be a transformative hub for discovery-based, hands-on education, increasing access to and equity in informal learning opportunities by fostering collaborative educational partnerships in Southeast Ohio. You can follow us on social media at:
Teacher Guide
Historical Photos and Artifacts Slideshow
Download a pdf of this slideshow with notes:
Resources
Lesson 1: Here and Now
To find more simple sign language signs, explore Baby Sign Language.com
Are you interested in exploring mapping more in-depth with your students? Here are some suggestions of activities to try:
- Explore more with Google Earth. Search for areas of local interest, like a nearby park, library, restaurant, etc.
- This is a whole series of map lessons for free once you sign up. https://firstieland.com/map-skills-for-young-students-with-me/
- Me on the map: https://www.thefirstgraderoundup.com/2016/07/me-on-map.html
- Explore National Geographic resources:
- The Sun, Earth, and Cardinal Directions: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/sun-earth-and-cardinal-directions/
- Mapping Storybooks: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/mapping-storybooks/
- Mapping the Classroom: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/mapping-classroom/
- Find additional links to maps of Ohio, or request FREE maps from the Ohio Department of Transportation: https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/about-us/resources/maps
Lesson 2: The Recent Past
Are you interested in exploring natural resources more in-depth with your students? Here are some suggestions of activities to try:
- See what another first grade classroom is learning about resources here:
- Explore shelter and other resources with these activities:
- Try “Everybody needs a home,” adapted from Project Wild. Draw a floor plan of a home and consider the resources needed to make it or that are used in it: https://users.manchester.edu/Student/lmheaton/ProfWeb/Early%20Childhood%20Lesson%20and%20rubric.pdf
- Try building an animal habitat, from PBS Learning Media: https://woub.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/03615ad9-95c8-423d-9405-a6c98f65dac0/center-cards-build-an-animal-habitat/
- Print and play “Who Lives Here” – match the animal with its habitat with images on card: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/finalwho_lives_here6.3.20.pdf
- Prepare a nesting ball to encourage birds to build nests near your home: https://www.pennington.com/all-products/wild-bird/resources/make-a-nesting-ball
- Create a bughouse to attract preferred insects to the schoolyard: https://supersimple.com/article/bug-hotel/
- Explore muddy, sandy, or snowy areas outdoors to look for animal tracks. See how far you can follow them, and consider what animal you might be seeing the tracks off and what it might have been doing.
- Using air dry clay, modeling clay, salt dough, or plaster of Paris, make a handprint, footprint, or other mold of a track.
- Make your own monster tracks: Create an animal “foot” that can attach to your shoe. Find a place in your neighborhood where the soil is soft (sandy or muddy) and create “monster” prints. Take photos and share with friends and family, or encourage friends, family, or neighbors to visit your tracks and try to figure out what they are.
Lesson 3: Long, Long Ago
Are you interested in exploring more about archeology in general, or the Hopewell culture specifically, more in-depth with your students? Here are some resources for more information, activities, and images of artifacts:
- Explore the Ohio History Connection’s online exhibit “First Ohioans” here: https://resources.ohiohistory.org/omeka/exhibits/show/firstohioans
- Find images of all of the Field Museum’s collection of Hopewell artifacts here: http://hopewell.unl.edu/images.html
- Read more about the mound locations in The Plains in this 2019 article from the Athens News: https://www.athensnews.com/news/local/it-s-worth-remembering-the-plains-owns-special-legacy/article_895599cc-45bc-11e9-8940-7f5b72c1a2a6.html
- Explore more about the Wolf Plains group on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Plains
- Explore the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, part of the National Park Service, located in Chillicothe: https://www.nps.gov/hocu/index.htm
- Try the “Today and Yesterday: Comparing Cultures” activity from the National Park Service to compare cultures from the past to cultures in the present. https://www.nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/today-and-yesterday-comparing-cultures.htm
- Try the PB & J Archeology activity from the National Park Service to explore how an artifact is covered up over time and excavated by archeologists: https://www.nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/pb-j-archeology.htm
- Try this comparison of example artifacts activity from the National Park Service, “A Penny for Your Thoughts” https://www.nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/a-penny-for-your-thoughts.htm
Background Information
When we began designing this field trip kit, we got excited about the idea of mapping. Not just mapping to find our way around, but mapping as in the way maps can be used to tell stories about people now and people in the past, as well as the ways we can use maps to learn about natural resources, animal and plant habitats, and so much more. Using maps this way is the idea behind Geographic Information Systems (GIS). You may be familiar with GIS, especially as it relates to programs such as Google Earth, or the mapping app you might use on your smartphone. Many of us use apps to help us find our way, but all of the extra information that we see connected with a map is behind the idea of GIS. For example, you can figure out your turn-by-turn directions to your school on a paper map or a mapping app. In a mapping app, thanks to GIS, you can also view your school’s footprint, nearby buildings, parks, and other neighborhood features, and you can even zoom down to street level and get a view of what your school and its neighborhood looks like. This is where the magic of maps and storytelling intersects. Maps can be used to tell stories that help us learn about our world in many different ways. With all of that in mind, we wanted to find a way to introduce maps and their stories to your students and then expand those stories to the people and animals who have lived in this same place throughout history. We’ve included connections about the resources that we use today, resources that people used in the past, and even resources that animals need to survive. To that end, we’ve created this STEAM field trip pack with three main activities. Woven throughout each of them are concepts relating to maps, time, and natural resources in a way that is accessible to students in first grade through stories, hands-on activities, and games. We hope that you enjoy implementing this field trip as much as we’ve enjoyed preparing it! We look forward to hearing any feedback you may have for us, and to bringing field trips to your classroom in person once again in the future.
Discover the World you Live in…